Daily EducationNews.org
Sunday, April 2, 2006

Arizona Republic
Schools can post wish lists on Web
''Contribute to Classrooms,'' is a new partnership initiative between schools and The Arizona Republic/ Azcentral.com to provide a central place to seek volunteers and donations of school supplies.

Baltimore Sun
Grasmick mingles politics, accountability
City and state leaders stand on opposing sides of the debate over how to improve public education in Baltimore

A welcome display of impatience over schools
Dan Rodricks
Raoul Middleman, one of Baltimore's great artists, teachers and raconteurs, calls himself an "impatientist" with the brush, and if you've ever experienced the glory of his presence

Boston Globe
Teachers pressed to measure up
Federal law sets bar for skill in subject area
It's not only students who are working for good grades in June. By the end of the school year, teachers across Boston's western suburbs will be expected to meet federal standards showing that they know the subjects they teach.

Charlotte Observer
NAACP chief: Schools guilty of 'child abuse'
State leader likens performance of some schools to child abuse
A Wake County Superior Court judge has decried the low performance of some high schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and across the state, calling it "academic genocide."

Cincinnati Enquirer
Faculty, students share impressions
Nine students and faculty went to the United Arab Emirates for the first time recently. "I absolutely loved it," junior Lauren Petrzilka said.

Columbus Dispatch
Picking a prom dress often matter of principal
It was love at first sight. Pink satin. Black lace along the top. Black tulle peeking out from the hem. Bishop Hartley High School senior Eryn Kane had found her prom dress. "I wanted something modest, something that is pretty but not outrageous

Contra Costa Times
Fifth-graders learn to go beyond misconceptions
By Lisa Fernandez, KNIGHT RIDDER
The fifth-graders met for the first time Monday and acted like kids anywhere. They sat at desks in a San Jose classroom, asking each other, "What's your favorite color?" And "What music do you like?" They played basketball. They ate sweet rolls.

Dallas Morning News
DISD Deserves Better
Medrano 'win' looks like loss for progress
Adam Medrano will replace the late Joe May on the Dallas school board. Count us among the disappointed.

Houston Chronicle
36 Houston-area schools make honor roll
Schools named to the honor roll have done well academically and also have outperformed other schools with similar demographics over three years.

Odessa school cracks down on dress code violations
Officials suspend 75 students for wearing pants that ride too low or are too baggy

Los Angeles Times
Teen Should Apply Big Payout to Her Education and Savings
By Liz Pulliam Weston
Question: I am a librarian in a small-town high school. One of our students lost her mother many years ago in a car accident. Now, at 18, she has received a large check from the insurance company and will receive two additional checks when she is 21 and 25. It will add up to well over $100,000.

New York Post
U.S.-BORN DON'T MAKE GRADE
By HEATHER GILMORE "Give me liberty, or give me death," patriot Patrick Henry declared in 1775. Not George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Hancock or Henry Ford, as a surprising number of solid citizens responded in an informal Post survey last week.

New York Times
Nobody's Perfect. Neither Is the Test.
By KAREN W. ARENSON
The incorrect scoring of 5,000 exams from the October SAT is a reminder that testing is not an exact science. But just how inexact is it?

A Paint Job? Yes, and a Painting Job, Too
By JOSEPH P. FRIED
Through a nonprofit program, New York City middle and high school students paint older schools in vibrant colors, learning discipline for the work world along the way.

Doubling Up on Literacy Classes
There is something strange about criticizing schools for trying to teach children to read. A new annual survey on the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act has many educators fuming. .

Palm Beach Post
Boot camp's demise riles officials, kids
A shrinking budget is forcing Martin County's program, called a model boot camp by state legislators, to shut down.

Pasadena Star News
Schools planned ahead for walkouts
When students staged walkouts last week, area schools had three primary responses: lock down the campus, bring in more adults, and send someone to follow the protesters.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Gender gap greater in reading
By Kristen A. Graham and Dan Hardy, Inquirer Staff Writers
Huddled in a cozy corner of a Cooper Elementary School classroom, three pals were having a blast, sprawled on their bellies, reading about the adventures of Captain Underpants and laughing uproariously.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Home and Away: College-bound kids don't stray far from home
When 2005 Canon-McMillan High graduate Andrew Andronas was selecting a college, his final decision came down to this: Should he play football at a small school -- Waynesburg College -- or be a fan at a large school -- West Virginia University?

Some schools offer students a bigger boost than others
Fox Chapel Area High School guidance department chair Bob Alcorn considers his school to be on "the circuit." 

Five students, five dreams, none the same
When CHASE SMITH of the Hill District looked for a college, he wanted one with a family feeling such as he had at Central Catholic High School. 

Home and Away: Where They Go
School-by-school results of a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette study of the college-going behavior of more than 13,800 students for the Class of 2005 from 95 high schools in Western Pennsylvania.

Home and Away: College Trivia
Test your knowledge on naming the location for various colleges.

Providence Journal
Edwatch by Julia Steiny: Making beautiful music
The spiffily dressed fifth graders in Loren Palmer's music classes at Sheffield, Underwood and Cranston-Calvert schools slide into seats in the Navy Band's big rehearsal room at the Newport Naval War College.

When students lost out, parents fought back
The state reverses a policy that had taken away special education services to some private school students in Rhode Island.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
BIG PODCASTS ON CAMPUS
Hamline and other Minnesota schools are taking advantage of iPod-like music players to bring everything from classroom lectures to chapel services to wider audiences via the Internet.
BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA, Pioneer Press
Big-name guest speakers such as Gov. Tim Pawlenty regularly appear at Hamline University's School of Law in St. Paul. But, until recently, relatively few people heard the speeches.

Salt Lake Tribune
Federal pilot program passes on U-PASS
Utah has not been chosen for a federal pilot program that could have thawed the state's Cold War with the U.S. Department of Education over requirements of the No Child Left Behind education reform law.
In February, Utah was among 20 states whose growth-based plans for judging school progress were considered for the pilot program

San Antonio Express-News
Carlos Guerra: Holiday is a reminder of Mexican American parents' sacrifices
Four decades after enrolling here, Texas A&M University-Kingsville has changed a lot.

San Diego Union Tribune 
Education dynamo takes new post
Luan Rivera relishes her role as a full-time advocate for students.
She was in third grade when she told her mother she wanted to be a teacher, and such passion for education has led her to the post of president of the California School Boards Association.

Tallahassee Democrat
Gay students find support
It can be found on doors, office windows and other places around town and on Florida State University's campus.

Washington Post
Closure Plan Draws Heated Objections
Dozens of parents, teachers and activists gave the D.C. Board of Education a piece of their minds on Saturday about a proposal to close or merge an estimated 30 schools.

Washington Times
Ehrlich backs school board plan  (Brian Witte)
BALTIMORE -- Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday he is backing the state school board's plan to bring in outside managers for 11 failing schools in Baltimore, despite opposition from the General Assembly.

Wichita Eagle
Olympiad finds kids 'mesmerized by science'
BY JILLIAN COHAN, The Wichita Eagle
The ball bearing started its path smoothly down the ramp. Then, heartbreakingly, it stopped. "Touch," Lucy Orsi said. Hands shaking, she urged the ball back on its path through an intricate maze of levers, pulleys, ramps and wedges.

Wilmington News Journal
Grandmom helps kids gain independence
73-year-old 'not ready for the rocking chair,' works with disabled students

International Articles

The Gulf Times
Pupils, bank staff on plant study trip
NEARLY 200 children from three schools and staff of Commercialbank went on a field trip to learn about Qataf, the plant chosen for the 'A Flower Each Spring' campaign this year.

The Independent (UK)
Strange case of the missing teacher and an inspector who was due to call
Build-up to Ofsted visit could have left her 'emotionally and physically vulnerable', says letter seen by 'IoS'

30 institutions for British Council's education exhibition
SOME 30 British educational institutions comprising universities and colleges of further and higher education will participate in the British Council's annual education exhibition that opens at the Ramada Hotel today at 5pm.

The Peninsula
Amateurs share spotlight with professionals at Qafco show
DOHA: Schools, hotels and individuals, vied with one-another for some of the top honours at the Qatar Fertilizer Co's contest for fruit, vegetable, pot decoration and other categories, held as part o ..............

The TImes Education Supplement
Platform: Back to the 1950s - that'll teach 'em
Exams should test understanding and GCSEs, in my opinion, don't.
For many years I've been a staunch defender of GCSEs. I can no longer defend them. Exams should test understanding and GCSEs, in my opinion, don't. For years we've been told that the system was being "dumbed down". I refused to accept it.

End of coursework era
England's exam watchdog wants to scrap coursework in many GCSE and A-level subjects within four years.

The Issue: Numeracy
Commons committee report suggests that 15 million adults have inadequate numeracy skills.